Waist level finders?

I have a waist level finder that came with a F3 that I bought on ebay a few months back. Does anyone have one and actually use it? I have attached it a few times and looked through it and messed around with it and find it to be very aggravating to use. What is the best use for these or are they more a useless piece of gear?

"There is something about the mystery
of what is on a roll of film that keeps
me shooting, none of that digital
instant gratification for me."

No, not useless, it's just a piece of equipment. When I got my Mamiya 645 that's all I had for years. I used it, got used to it and enjoyed it. I was manual and metering anyway.

I have the F3hp and don't have a wlf for it. It might be a little too small for me. The high eyepoint view finder for the Nikon F3 is the best thing ever invented. You can see the entire field with eyeglasses. Try to find one if you can. So it's hp for F3 and wlf for Mamiya.

I do have the meter finder for Mamiya also.

Good luck,
Curt

Everytime I find a film or paper that I like, they discontinue it. - Paul Strand - Aperture monograph on Strand

I assume their main capacity is just what their English name suggests: gaining a perspective from waist level...

Further they can be useful when placing the camera flat on the ground, on a wall etc.
You could also use it with the camera held above your head to obtain greater height. But this depends whether you have got an optic on that finder where you have to bring your eye near to, or a groundglass which you could see from greater distance.

My SLR has not got interchangeable finders; I use an attachable turnable 90° prism finder instead.

Last edited by AgX; 05-28-2007 at 11:31 PM. Click to view previous post history.
Reason: vocabulary

I have one for my F4S, though it doesn't get used too often. A few possibilities are low level shooting, or for copy work when the camera is pointed straight down on a stand. Another somewhat useful aspect is the built-in magnifier for getting a more critical focus, though I don't remember whether the F3 had that too.

The big downside for me on the F4S is that the waist level finder only works with the spot metering. Mostly for me that means I prefer manually metering with my Sekonic, then setting the camera to that.

The view is reversed left to right. This is something you either get use to, or never like at all. It would be very tough trying to follow motion with this.